If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Salaries and the cap

Several fans keep raising the issue that we should be cutting cap.

Why?

1. There is no way that we are getting under the cap anytime soon to have any real chance of signing big free agents. Keep in mind that VERY FEW big free agents have been signed in the last few years by anyone but there own team. Oh except of course when Scott LAyden signed Clarence Weatherspoon. LOL

2. The key is look at the contracts we have and the players and how many usefeul years left or are they in serious decline.

Mo Taylor - 28, has three to four good years left, only has two years left on his deal,

Tim Thomas - only one year left after this season, the Knicks can either trade his expiring contract or if he keeps playing well (don't hold your breath) sign him for a lot less at the end of next season.

Kurt Thomas - 32, has three good years left in him, keeps himself in great shape, and his contract is reasonable.

Malik Rose - 28 and three years left, has at least that many good years in him.

Penny - one year left, still can be useful off the bench.

Jamal - has a lot of upside to his career, a coach like Herb Williams can be good for him, maek him a better defender and get better at shot selection.

Sweetney - love this guy, early in his career. Will probalby only last til 31 or so, draggin that extra weight up and down the floor willl shorten his career.

Salary Cap

The cap is not a hard cap like it is in Football. Teams that spend over the cap have a dollar for dollar penalty for each dollar in salary over the cap. For example, if your team salaries are $63MM over the cap, then you will pay an additional $63MM in penalties to the league.

There are a couple of other considerations to teams over the cap. One, you can not take bake more in salary than you trade away, since most teams are over the cap, this means that you have to match salaries in order to make a trade. That is a difficult task and means that you often have to take some throw in players with lousy deals to get the player you want.

It also makes it valuable to have guys with expiring salaries. For example, Penny HArdaway makes $13MM (overpaid and broken down), but his deal expires at the end of the season. So let's say you are Philadelphia with Chris Webber making around the same amount of money, but with three more years left on his deal. You would love to trade Webber for Hardaway even though Weber is the better player because if your desire is to get rid of his (Webber's) contract before his skills decline even further you would take a lesser pllayer in Hardaway becasue his salary comes off the books this season. So in effect you get rid of the last two years of Webbers contract. You save not only the last two years of $13MM each, buy you save $13MM in cap penalties as well.

Another thing about the cap is that if you cut a player to get rid of his salary his dollars don't come off the cap for two years or until the deal expires, whichever comes first.

For example, Allan Houston's deal has this year and one more to go. However, he retired for medical reasons and he has not played in a game since last Janaury. Under these circumstances his deal (contract) will come off the book this January. So if the Knicks wanted to make a major trade, and there was a team want to get rid of some large salaries they could trade for Houston's contract and get rid of approx $20MM in salaries.